Dublin beat Meath 1-20 to 0-19 at Parnell Park, but the Royals seem to have narrowed the gap since the Leinster final mauling of 2019.
Dublin returned to action after seven and a half months and, at times, looked awesome in their win over Meath.
Manager Dessie Farrell still has some of the very best footballers in the country, and there were times when the Royals struggled with their quality.
The flipside is that the visitors came from seven points behind to almost draw level with the five-in-a-row All-Ireland champions.
In fact, Meath will be disappointed that they didn’t take something from this game.
Andy McEntee’s side have returned zero points from six league games — including the matches played earlier in 2020 — but have been competitive in many of those.
On Eir Sport, Marc O Se spoke of how his native Kerry were fortunate to get a result against the Royals.
Meath also lost narrowly to Tyrone, Galway and Mayo, with their scoring differential of -25 largely due to a heavy beating by Donegal.
Shane Stapleton was at Parnell Park, and gives his thoughts on the video at the top of the page.
RESULTS
SATURDAY
Division 1
Dublin 1-20 0-19 Meath
Monaghan 0-14 0-17 Kerry
Division 2
Armagh 0-15 3-10 Roscommon
Westmeath 1-18 0-13 Laois
Division 3
Cork 5-19 0-16 Louth
Derry 2-14 0-12 Longford
Down W/O 0 Leitrim
Division 4
Carlow 2-17 2-15 Sligo
Wicklow 7-11 0-07 Antrim
SUNDAY
Division 1
Donegal 2-17 2-13 Tyrone
Galway 0-17 3-23 Mayo
Division 2
Clare 1-11 1-09 Fermanagh
Kildare 1-21 0-20 Cavan
Division 3
Tipperary 1-16 0-16 Offaly
Division 4
Limerick 1-10 1-13 Wexford
Waterford W/O 0 London
